Sfogliare o scrollare? Il futuro della lettura, tra mondo cartaceo e digitale

Abstract

The choice of the reading medium is not without consequences. Reading a paper book or a digital one engages the reader’s perceptual and cognitive systems differently, leading to a different comprehension of the text, affecting the reader’s way of thinking, of understanding the surrounding world, and acting in it. Given the importance of such a choice, on an individual and social level, especially in the educational field, it is not acceptable anymore to leave it at the mercy of the latest technological trends or of the dominant commercial interests. While fully aware of the great potential offered by the digital revolution, an increasing number of researchers, in a wide variety of fields, such as neurosciences, psychology, pedagogy and educational sciences are ringing many alarm bells to raise awareness about how harmful the complete cancellation of the paper culture would be. History is studded with transformations in the ways of living, acting, and thinking, born of each other’s ashes. However, this is not an ineluctable destiny, and our age has the tools to ensure that paper and screen are not two shields raised one against the other, but two wings that allow, together, human knowledge to reach new and unexplored horizons.